Why More Media Companies Are Cutting Salaries Instead of Laying Off People

Future Media Group, Vice, BuzzFeed, Gannett and American Media Group have cut the salaries of their staff as a way, they say, to avoid more layoffs. Other publishers, from national outlets to niche publications, are likely to offer something similar.

It’s a move to apply pressure to the gaping wound the coronavirus has left in the entire supply chain of media economics: If companies aren’t making products because they’re closed, they’re not able to sell products, which means they can’t market or advertise any products.

One request asks Google, Facebook and Amazon to implement more magnanimous policies that industry insiders hope will help reduce friction on Big Tech’s payment terms. Another asks Google to shelve its plans to depreciate cookies in its Chrome browser. Both requests have, at their hearts, a sense of fear of an uncertain world left in the wake of the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

Advertisers are slashing spend, impacting the entire industry and introducing a scenario where the rich are getting richer, while the poor go under. Indeed, many predict a sharp contraction in the total number of ad-tech companies in the years, if not months, ahead. These two requests are appeals to blunt the coming maelstrom.

According to Advertising Analytics, a firm that tracks candidates’ ad spend, neither Joe Biden nor Bernie Sanders has run a television ad since March 17.

For the week of March 17, Biden and Sanders each spent about $1.7 million on total advertising, down from $7.8 million and $9.5 million respectively the week prior. Biden’s ad spend hasn’t dropped this low since mid-February, while Sanders hasn’t spent this little since early January.

Lynn Vavreck, a politics and public policy professor at UCLA, said reducing spend is likely due to a combination of how the race has shifted from a tight competition between the two to a clearer path toward victory for Biden, and the ubiquity of the coronavirus outbreak.

Following the IAB’s decision Tuesday to delay the NewFronts by nearly two months, to the week of June 22, companies like Digitas, Amazon and Twitter have told Adweek they will no longer appear at the annual series of presentation for media buyers. Twitter was the first to announce it would drop out last week, prior to the postponement, and a spokesperson confirmed that the platform still planned to sit out the June presentation.

Sprint and T-Mobile have officially closed their merger, capping off a two-year regulatory journey that wound through several levels of the country’s legal system.

The $26 billion deal will bring the number of major wireless carriers in the United States to just three, despite antitrust challenges from the Justice Department and, more recently, lawsuits from a number of states that were struck down last month by a federal judge.

Founding Hulu CEO Jason Kilar has been named WarnerMedia CEO, effective May 1, the company announced today.

Kilar will report to former WarnerMedia CEO John Stankey. Last September, Stankey was promoted to president and chief operating officer of AT&T, setting him up as the likely successor to AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson.

Aiming to help provide a solution to the ongoing problem of gauging shifts in consumer demand amid the coronavirus pandemic, online grocery delivery platform Instacart has opened its vast vault of data to the nation’s producers of packaged food items.

For CPG partners that use Instacart’s ad products, such as paid search, the platform has begun sharing its real-time inventory figures. Since Instacart delivers from 25,000 grocery stores such as Costco, Kroger and Aldi and is located in more than 5,500 cities across North America, the company said it has a unique ability to capture which products are running low and how people are filling their shopping carts.

Michael Smith, who most recently served as an svp, general manager for digital channels at Scripps Networks, has been appointed as NPR’s chief marketing officer.

The brand marketing executive will assume his position as NPR’s head marketer starting April 6. He brings over 30 years of experience in entertainment brand marketing, content, digital and revenue-generating brand extensions to the D.C.-based nonprofit membership media organization.